The South East Animal Welfare League (SEAWL) is at capacity with dogs due to a multitude of factors, including the rising cost of living.


The 14 dog enclosures are full and the waitlist for owner surrenders is currently taking around a month or two.


SEAWL shelter manager Marcia Perkovic said the problem has been ongoing for the past two months.


“There are a lot of reasons including the cost of living, housing, people have got puppies that are now a year old and they have not trained them, they have not desexed them and they do not want to deal with the problems and relationship breakdowns,” she said.


“There has been high numbers of surrenders and low numbers of adoptions for this time of year probably for the same reasons.


“All the animals we are getting, majority are not desexed, they have never been vaccinated, they do not even have a microchip so these animals are coming from backyard breeders.


“We have got a whole bunch of people on the wait list and so … when we adopt a dog out we can then book those people in.


“If we get an adoption, we can book the next surrender in for the week after that.


“The shelter is full and the cattery is now also as well.


The cats and kittens are all going very quickly but the dogs are very slow for this time of year.


“I think it is going to be like this for a while because the whole state of South Australia and possibly the country are all in the same boat, everything is at capacity, there is no room.


“If people are relying on us to take their animal, they need to be active in their own rehoming so find a friend, try to rehome to a responsible home.”